Parent: Nintendo DS Would Have Distracted Newton From Discovering Gravity

I just discovered a hullabaloo over at the Orange County Register’s Mom Blog that began when blogger/mom Marla Jo Fisher explained why she keeps her household gaming free.

Part of the attraction for this story are the new ways Fisher demonizes games, which she thinks would hold her son back from growing up smart and fit.

This is kind of novel:

I truly believe that video games were created by Satan to turn otherwise normal children into his drooling, glassy-eyed stooges. After my son plays them at his friends’ houses, he comes home irritable and testy for the rest of the day.

But this… this is new stuff:

Here’s my question: When do kids ever think these days? When do they ever have brains free from electronics long enough to ponder the universe? To think of things that might someday lead them to a cure for cancer?

If Sir Isaac Newton had been playing a DS, I’m sure he never would have noticed the apple falling from the tree, so he never would have formulated the theory of gravity.

Fisher gets hit with gamer backlash in the comments section below her blog. That’s not too surprising. More interesting is a dad named Kevin who writes about his kids’ relationship with games.

Here’s some from Kevin’s comment:

My youngest son’s case: he’s 13 now, and loves his Xbox. The game he loves to play enables him create and design his own courses and let’s others online use his course too. The menu system for this game is very complex, and develops analyical skills just to work through the whole thing. He is able to record his course runs and can “render” them and put them up on a forum for his buddies online to watch. He can do screen captures (get still pictures) of him playing. This has motivated him to learn Photoshop (totally on his own) so he can edit the photos and post them on his forum. He’s now into creating videos of his games, creating title pages, splicing in pictures, adding video, adding music for other gamers to watch. I was amazed! I got him Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements (video editor) for christmas! He’s 13!! He’s certainly not the only kid out there doing this.

I’m not so interested in commenters here haranguing Marla Jo Fisher, but I am curious what parents believe their kids are getting out of playing games. A release? Development of skills? Entertainment?

Video Games Were Invented By The Devil [The Orange County Register’s The Mom Blog]